The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law) is sponsoring an exhibit in the Louise H. Keelty and James Keelty, Jr. Atrium on German Women Jewish Lawyers in the Third Reich. Many of these women were pioneers in the creation of the legal profession in pre-World War II Germany. Many were murdered and some were able to immigrate to the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of those who immigrated struggled to recreate their lives as lawyers.

The exhibition “Jewish Women Lawyers and Women Lawyers of Jewish Descent” created by the German Women Lawyers Association (Deutscher Juristinnenbund) consists of panels describing how the Third Reich impacted the lives of these Jewish women. Catholic Law is proud to exhibit these panels both to commemorate these women and underscore the importance of women lawyers in the life of the law. In addition to the exhibition, visines with academic and personal writings of some of these women will be on display.

The exhibit will open Wednesday, October 18, at 2:00 p.m. with a special opening program in the Walter A. Slowinski Courtroom. The program will include a welcome by the President of the American Bar Association and the legal advisor of the German embassy. It will be followed by a talk about the German legal profession and its response to National Socialism, including the lessons we must learn about the importance of an independent legal profession to protect the rule of law. It will be followed by a panel of descendents of these women lawyers.